Future leadership bid?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/john-bercow-labour-attack-johnson-b1869118.html

Posted 1 year ago

Good man. Need a few million more people now to realise just what the Conservative party has become with Johnson as leader, and wash their hands of it for good.

Posted 1 year ago

“He also accused the PM of having no interest in anybody but himself,”

Pot, kettle, black.

Posted 1 year ago

Small angry bully joins bunch of disorganised crap politicians

Posted 1 year ago

The whole time he was speaker, I always thought he was Labour. It was a great surprise to me when he stood down and then I found out he was a Tory.

Posted 1 year ago

Bercow has always been an unpredictable oddball imo. I’m not entirely sure how much of an asset he will be for the Labour Party, I suspect not much.

If I was Labour Leader I would worried about a loose political cannonball who has the ability to grab the headlines.

Posted 1 year ago

His wife is a labour supporter.

Posted 1 year ago

Member I think

Posted 1 year ago

Trying to get into the Lords?
More of a serving slime ball than most of the rest in the Commons.

Posted 1 year ago

I don’t think he’s even going to be an MO again is he? However I do think that hypothetically if he were Labour leader he’s got what it takes to compete with Johnson.

Posted 1 year ago

That will make labour popular 🙄

Posted 1 year ago

When elected Speaker he was voted in by Labour MPs – not sure if any Tory actually voted for him. Worth finding Tom Bradby interview with him – cringe inducing train smash. During Cameron’s time in office few back Ben here, like Chope, even more interested in making mischief with Bercow than being difficult on Europe.

Posted 1 year ago

He’s a recognised “face” in the media, will get on telly as he’s guaranteed to say the sorts of things no MP will and has the experience not to fall for any obvious elephant traps, and he hates Johnson. Even if that’s just the Sunday political programmes, it’s something.

Given that none of  the Labour front bench are known in the pubic, and are pretty much just faceless bureaucrats, Labour could do with a few supports with a ready quote of just how jeffing useless the tories are.

Posted 1 year ago

Spot on nickc.

Posted 1 year ago

Agree with nickc.

Posted 1 year ago

As good as it will be to have someone else sticking the boot into bozo, to anyone who voted for Brexit he’s just another remainer who tried to frustrate Brexit. I can’t see him helping win back any red wall voters. Hopefully I’m wrong.

Posted 1 year ago

He might well be a bit odious but in the face of stupendously useless (or hand tied trying to appeal to both side of the debate) opposition he’s still a bit of hero to me for his pantomime performance slowing up Brexit’s progress.

All up for him putting the knife into BJ and his shower. Will he do that better with a red tie on, who knows.

You are screwed either way down in England for the best part of a generation waiting for a half competent opposition to the tories to pitch up who are able to bridge the gap between your red wall types and your left of centre remain voting middle classes so it’s all a mute point.

Posted 1 year ago

At this moment in time, I’d rather have pretty much anyone but Johnson in power. The bloke struggles to make a coherent sentence.

Posted 1 year ago

I’d rather have pretty much anyone but Johnson in power.

I said that about Cameron.

And then May.

Be careful what you wish for.

Posted 1 year ago

As good as it will be to have someone else sticking the boot into bozo, to anyone who voted for Brexit he’s just another remainer who tried to frustrate Brexit. I can’t see him helping win back any red wall voters. Hopefully I’m wrong.

This. Would’ve though LibDems would be a more natural fit for him.

Posted 1 year ago

At this moment in time, I’d rather have pretty much anyone but Johnson in power. The bloke struggles to make a coherent sentence.

You need to partake of a soothing medicament if you think Bercow is any better than Johnson

Posted 1 year ago

Not a Bercow fan but he is better than Johnson by a large distance. He was also a better speaker than the melt we have now.

Posted 1 year ago

I said that about Cameron.

And then May.

Be careful what you wish for.

Posted 1 year ago

You need to partake of a soothing medicament if you think Bercow is any better than Johnson

You’d have to be a rabid brexiter to think he could possibly be any worse.

Posted 1 year ago

@bails > precisely.

If the leadership race is between Pob and the Esteemed Member for the 19th Century, we’ve properly screwed the pooch.

Posted 1 year ago

He can put the boot in to Johnson and the Government generally, but he won’t be representing a party and so personal baggage won’t matter so much. This raises his profile a bit, and gives him some standing to oppose without representing any opposition party. A good position for a loose cannon to be in.

I had assumed he would be made a Lord come the next non-Conservative government come what may, I don’t think he needed to do this to ensure that.

Posted 1 year ago

In the current atmosphere of nothing going right for Labour, I expect this to somehow backfire.

Posted 1 year ago

I said that about Cameron.

And then May.

Be careful what you wish for.

They do seem to be getting worse in recent times but not worse decade on decade once we include the likes of Thatcher and IDS.

Posted 1 year ago

He’s just trolling the Brexiteers as he knows that the mere mention of his name sends them into a state of spitting apoplexy

Posted 1 year ago

In the current atmosphere of nothing going right for Labour, I expect this to somehow backfire

I don’t know having a short pompous egomaniac bully, with dubious views in his past, an eye for the ladies and the ability to use words that no-one in the real world does worked well for the conservatives

Posted 1 year ago

Just when Kier started to push back on the tired old trope of champagne socialists, along comes a new multimillionaire socialist who personally presided over the record breaking increase in champagne consumption in the Palace of Westminster.

Posted 1 year ago

I don’t know having a short pompous egomaniac bully, with dubious views in his past, an eye for the ladies and the ability to use words that no-one in the real world does worked well for the conservatives

🙂

Posted 1 year ago

My enemy’s enemy is my friend.

Posted 1 year ago

Labour or Tory. No difference.

Posted 1 year ago

If he can be a face for Labour, doing press and sticking the boot in, f***ing happy days.

Posted 1 year ago

According to the FT this what the Tory Justice Secretary Robert Buckland had to say :

“As a former speaker, he is somebody who even though he has left office does carry a degree of authority like his predecessors”, he said. “But I think him joining a political party actually has the effect of diminishing his voice in politics however strong he wants it to be.”

I reckon that is a reasonable point to make and probably true. He will be seen as just another party politician with an axe to grind, rather than a wise elder statesman whose opinions carry more gravitas because he is above party politics.

Although to be fair imo Bercow would struggle to project the image of wise elder statesman full stop.

Greedy short-arse who caned the allowance system is the image that comes into my mind.

Posted 1 year ago

Labour or Tory. No difference

There really is.

Posted 1 year ago

I reckon that is a reasonable point to make and probably true.

I don’t disagree with your summation.

However, what differentiates Bercow from many of his peers is, as far as I know at least, he isn’t a self-serving moron.

Posted 1 year ago

Very few MPs are morons.

Posted 1 year ago

And FYI

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/24/john-bercow-expenses-claim-chauffeur-journeys

He was clearly taking the piss.

Posted 1 year ago